Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Last Friday Night Date Night

I've been wanting to go to a sidewalk chalk art show for a really long time. When I saw billboards advertising a Chalk Art Festivals to raise money for kids in Foster Care...w00t!I put the event at the top of my "things to do" list.

It was held at the really wonderful Gateway Mall, which is a great place to visit anytime anyway.I convinced Bernie to make the event our Friday Night Date Night Date.

We arrived shortly after the artists got started. Each artist/group of artists paid a $1,000 entry fee, usually sponsored by a company or some other organization.

Sweet, and not even finished yet.

Doing a chalk drawing on concrete sounded fun to me until I watched the artists for a while. It is not easy to sit on concrete or kneel on concrete for long periods of time.

Some of the artists were blending their chalk work with their fingertips. I wondered how raw their fingers would be by the time their drawings were done.

Yes...artists suffering for their art!

(Naturally we ate. Do Bernie and Jill ever go anywhere together and not stop for something to eat? Noooo! In this case: Crab cake salad. Yum! I guess I was still on a Southern food kick!)

By the time we finished dinner Peter Pan's picture had progressed nicely.

Some of the artwork was so lifelike! Each artist seemed to have their own plan: some started in the middle and worked their way out.

Others worked top to bottom with an artist working on each side.

Most of them were working from a print.

Lots of them drew a grid and filled in each grid to match the grid of the picture they were using.

A few "famous" artists were given larger spaces and had their work chained off. The event lasted two days with judging at the end. It irked me a bit that I wouldn't be able to see the completed art...even though the mall is just 20 minutes from home!

Since we were in the mall...a bit of window shopping was in order.OK ladies: tell the truth: Is this dress a thumbs up or thumbs down?My high school home ec. sewing teacher would have had a stroke if I had turned in something like this. Is it possible that sewing has become a lost art and such raw stitching is the best that can be expected now days? Or is this an excellent example of cutting edge (HA! pun intended!) punk/steam punk/indie couture?(I'm wearing a dress that I sewed as I type this. If I were to take it off and turn it inside out...it could look close to this. Wonder if I should try wearing it like that at work?)

I'm still gritting my teeth to hold back from buying these two framed magazine covers.I"m thinking the floral hat is a Sally Victor...

Bernie did some shopping too...at the sporting good store.

Yes, it doesn't take much for us to have fun on a Friday night.

Best of all, we were able to support a good cause too.

Be on the look out; there may be a similar fund raiser coming to your area soon!

6 comments:

Art show, good food and a mall close by...sounds like a perfect date night to me. I would recommend not turning your dress inside out, no matter how cutting edge you want to be, but I do have to agree with you on that note.

Oh goodness the art show was terrific. It seems that you do live a very culturally rich city. I was looking at the sidewalk chart the other day in the store and passed it by as I thought it would just make a mess. .but I think I'll go back and get it. .think of the huge canvas we have.The dress? not on you and me ..the younger ones. . maybe.

The dress is a thumbs up! I LOVE it. I would totally wear it. You'd look FAB in it.

I like the chalk art too. Incredible how they can be so detailed. However, living here in these rainy parts....the first thing that came to mind was "Oh, what would they do if it rained and all the art work was washed away?" But then i recalled that I live in a rainy place, which is not where you live. Big sigh. Crisis averted.

I'm Jill. I'm a librarian and milliner now living in Salt Lake City with my husband of 37 years and my three shelter adopted cats. I'm 60, was born and expected I would spent my whole life in San Diego, save for two years in Corvallis Oregon in college.
Then beginning in 1997, right after our youngest graduated from high school my husband and I began "empty nesting" on the move. We lived one year in Almenden CA (San Jose area), two years in Dallas TX and eight years on Houston TX before moving Salt Lake City in the fall of 2008.
I love it here, but counting on Heaven being my ultimate hometown! I do hope we will one day be neighbors there?
I have two adult children; a daughter in San Diego and a son (and daughter-in-law) who also live in Salt Lake City; two beloved grandsons, and parents who were born and still live in San Diego, and who read my blog every day.